Fatigue behavior of welded austenitic stainless steel in different environments

AbstractThe fatigue behavior of welded austenitic stainless steel in 0.5M hydrochloric acid and wet steam corrosive media has been investigated. The immersion time in the corrosive media was 30days to simulate the effect on stainless steel structures/equipment in offshore and food processing applications and thereafter annealing heat treatment was carried out on the samples. The findings from the fatigue tests show that seawater specimens have a lower fatigue stress of 0.5×10−5N/mm2 for the heat treated sample and 0.1×10−5N/mm2 for the unheat-treated sample compared to the corresponding hydrochloric acid and steam samples. The post-welding heat treatment was found to increase the mechanical properties of the austenitic stainless steel especially tensile strength but it reduces the transformation and thermal stresses of the samples. These findings were further corroborated by the microstructural examination of the stainless steel specimen